SWIMMING NOTEBOOK
41-Year-Old Torres Takes A Proactive Stance on Drugs
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Thursday, July 3, 2008
OMAHA, July 2 -- On Thursday morning, Dara Torres will dive back into the pool in the preliminary heats of the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, her sights set squarely on making her fifth Olympic team at age 41. Torres does so knowing that her recent success -- she set a U.S. record in the 50 freestyle last year -- brings her a great deal of scrutiny because some members of the swimming community, not to mention the general public, can't believe an athlete her age can swim so fast.
So Torres met with Travis Tygart, who heads the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
"I told him I wanted to be an open book," Torres said. "You can DNA test me, blood test me, urine test me, whatever you want to do. Just test me because I want people to know that I am doing this right. . . . I am clean, and I want a clean sport."
Torres said she took the unusual steps -- which some other potential U.S. Olympians are also enduring -- because she realizes denials are no longer enough.
"Unfortunately, there have been athletes who have sat there in the past and looked everyone in the eyes and said, 'I am not taking drugs,' " she said. "Now they are in jail or indicted. . . . You are now guilty until proven innocent. That's why I stepped up and asked to be tested."
Torres said she has been randomly tested "probably about 12 to 15 times since March." She has also had to overcome shoulder surgery in November.
Torres is the first American to swim in four Olympics -- the first in 1984, the latest in 2000. She won bronze medals in the 50 and 100 freestyles in 2000. She will swim only those two events here after a seven-year retirement.
Crocker Disqualified
Ian Crocker, the world record holder in the 100 butterfly, got his meet off to an inauspicious start Wednesday morning when he left the starting block early in a preliminary heat of the 100 freestyle and was disqualified.
Though Crocker is focused primarily on the butterfly here, his mistake could be ominous for his potential participation in the relays at the Olympics. At last year's world championships in Melbourne, Australia, Crocker made the same error in the 400 medley relay, costing the Americans a shot at a gold medal. In the 4x100 freestyle relay at the 2004 Games in Athens, Crocker's poor leg left the Americans, including Michael Phelps, with a bronze.
